“Dark ships” emerge from the shadow of the Nord Stream pipeline mystery

Up to 400,000 tons of methane was released by the first gas leaks on the Nord Stream 2 line. The officials suspected that the international line had been sabotaged. Two large ships with their tracker off appeared around the leak sites in the days before they were detected, according to new analysis.

According to the analysis by SpaceKnow, the two dark ships were within a few miles of the leak sites. Jerry Javornicky, the CEO and co-founder of SpaceKnow, said that they had detected some dark ships. They had their beacon off, meaning there was no information about their movement, and they were trying to hide their location information and general information from the world.

The discovery, which was made by analyzing images from multiple satellites, is likely to further increase speculation about the cause of the blasts. Multiple countries investigating the incident believe the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were rocked by a series of explosions, with many suspicions directed at Russia as its full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues. (Russia has denied its involvement.) Once SpaceKnow identified the ships, it reported its findings to officials at NATO, who are investigating the Nord Stream incidents. Javornicky says NATO officials asked the company to provide more information. Advertisement

NATO does not comment on the details of our support or the sources used, but confirmed that NATO believes the incident was a deliberate and irresponsible act of sabotage and it has increased its presence in the Baltic and North seas. A NATO official, who did not have permission to speak publicly, confirmed to WIRED that NATO had received SpaceKnow's data and that satellite imagery can be used for its investigations.

The company looked at 90 days of satellite images to detect the ships. The company uses machine learning to find objects in satellite images. The ability to monitor roads and buildings is included. SpaceKnow's system can detect specific models of aircraft on landing strips according to Javornicky.